Friday, October 19, 2012

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI - QUOTES

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

Never was anything great achieved without danger

it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by
the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken
at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a
dread of punishment which never fails.

There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making
men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.

All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger
(it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make
mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to
do bold things, not the strength to suffer

Men are driven by two two principal impulses, either by love or by fear

The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend
himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and
a lion to frighten wolves

It is not titles that honour men, but men that honour titles

Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate
needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be
deceived

Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved

People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage
they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing
they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you
do not have to fear their vengeance

The ends justifies the means

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great

He who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.

Men in general judge more by the sense of sight than by the sense of
touch, because everyone can see but few can test by feeling. Everyone
sees what you seem to be, few know what you really are; and those few do
not dare take a stand against the general opinion.

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system.
For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the
preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in
those who gain by the new ones

A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to
ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways

Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times

How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who
studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the
way to his downfall rather than to his preservation

There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious

Appear as you may wish to b

History is written by the victors

There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself;
another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which
neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is
the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.

A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and
imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to
their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him

When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold
I strip off my muddy, sweaty, workday clothes, and put on the robes of
court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of
the ancients and am welcomed by them, and there I taste the food that
alone is mine, and for which I was born. And there I make bold to speak
to them and ask the motives of their actions, and they, in their
humanity, reply to me. And for the space of four hours I forget the
world, remember no vexation, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at
death: I pass indeed into their world

It is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both it is better to be feared than loved.

Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are

Men never do good unless necessity drives them to it; but when they are
free to choose and can do just as they please, confusion and disorder
become rampant

Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.

There is no avoiding war, it can only be postponed to the advantage of your enemy.

Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what has
happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in
antiquity

And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to
take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its
success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of
things

He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always
keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all
they ask is not to be oppressed”

The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.

One should never fall in the belief that you can find someone to pick you up

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast

as the physicians say it happens in hectic fever, that in the beginning
of the malady it is easy to cure but difficult to detect, but in the
course of time, not having been either detected or treated in the
beginning, it becomes easy to detect but difficult to cure

Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony

I conclude therefore that, fortune being changeful and mankind steadfast
in their ways, so long as the two are in agreement men are successful,
but unsuccessful when they fall out. For my part I consider that it is
better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman, and
if you wish to keep her under it is necessary to beat and ill-use her;
and it is seen that she allows herself to be mastered by the adventurous
rather than by those who go to work more coldly. She is, therefore,
always, woman-like, a lover of young men, because they are less
cautious, more violent, and with more audacity command her

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles

Make no small plans for they have not the power to stir men`s blood

There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by
letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the
truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect